Pro-’Israel’ Lobbies Spend Millions to Make a Change in the Us Democratic Party

In the latest attempt to block Democratic candidates who have expressed support for the Palestinians, The Guardian revealed that pro-Israeli hardliners spent millions to change the shapes of the primary nominations in the Democratic Party with money from Republican billionaires.

The newspaper revealed huge political financial flows led by the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to exclude Democratic candidates who are anti-Israel and supportive of the Palestinian cause from the race for a seat in Congress.

Critics accuse AIPAC and its allies of distorting the politics of the Democratic Party because the money used to influence the race for the nomination comes from wealthy Republicans.

It is noteworthy that the strength of AIPAC lies in its ability to punish any candidate for the US presidency or Congress through its financial and media influence and the diversity of methods of its influence on the results of any US national elections, whether through tools to guide public opinion, campaign financing, bribery, or the threat of scandal.

 

Influential Lobby

AIPAC, a pro-"Israel" lobby in the United States, expressed its happiness that the leading Democratic candidate, Donna Edwards, lost the contest for Maryland's seat in Congress because of its well-funded media campaign, the Guardian reported on July 20, 2022.

Edwards' defeat came as a result of the millions of dollars poured in by political action committees set up by the lobby for this purpose in order to defeat Edwards, who had been accused of disloyalty to "Israel."

In turn, AIPAC considered Edwards' defeat as confirmation that loyalty to "Israel" pays off and that it is good policy and good politics.

Edwards has been leading the opinion polls for several months, saying that she will be the Democratic Party's choice for the Maryland seat, but she lost to Glenn Ivey, on July 19, 2022, by 35% to her opponent, 51%, after AIPAC and pro-groups pumped money to defeat her.

"Shortly before Ivey declared his victory, AIPAC warned other Democratic contenders not to criticize Israeli policies or risk a well-funded campaign against them," the newspaper reported.

AIPAC spent $6 million, according to Open Secrets, via political action committees to remove Edwards, who served for 8 years as Maryland's first elected black parliamentarian before losing a Senate battle in 2016.

The Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI), another pro-Israeli group, also spent $426,000 to support Ivey.

Those committees financed a televised campaign in which Edwards criticized without mentioning "Israel," accusing it of being an impotent politician who had accomplished nothing during her tenure in Congress.

Edwards' loss came to give an idea of the role of money in preventing any candidate from showing criticism of "Israel," even though she had the support of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a number of other prominent Democratic leaders.

But Edwards angered pro-Israeli groups during her tenure in Congress because she did not support the Israeli war on Gaza and supported the nuclear agreement signed by President Barack Obama in 2015 to limit Iran's nuclear activities, an agreement that the Israeli government and AIPAC opposed.

Following Edwards' defeat, AIPAC declared it had helped nine pro-Israeli Democrats defeat their anti-Israel opponents in 2022.

AIPAC had established a major political action committee called the United Democratic Project (UDP) in order to spend unlimited amounts of money, directly influence the elections, and face growing criticism within the Democratic Party over Israel's treatment of the Palestinians.

That committee drew huge donations from wealthy Republican funders of former US President Donald Trump's campaigns, such as Paul Singer and Bernie Marcus, as well as Israeli-American Democratic funder Haim Saban.

 

Political Spending

Critics say AIPAC and its allies seek to influence and distort democratic politics in part because much of the money used to influence primaries is pumped out by pro-Israeli billionaire Republicans.

J Street, a liberal pro-Israeli group in the United States that had backed Donna Edwards' campaign, expressed concern about the role AIPAC played in determining the winner of the Democratic primary.

It considered that AIPAC targeted Edwards for her positions that are not different from the positions of the Democratic Party on American diplomacy in the Middle East, and she was attacked as being hostile to "Israel," noting that such practices are harmful and have been seen more than once in this session.

J Street spokesman Logan Bayroff accused AIPAC of being a front group for the Republican Party because it endorsed Republican members who voted to nullify the results of the presidential election that Biden won after the attack on Capitol Hill in January 6, 2020.

Bayroff warned that AIPAC and Republican funders are trying to drag the Democratic Party toward extreme policies on Israel and foreign policy by intimidating candidates and telling them that they cannot openly criticize Israeli policy or publicly express support for Palestinian rights.

The United Democratic Project (UDP) and pro-Israeli groups such as the Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) and Pro-Israel America (PIA) have spent lavishly against candidates seen as anti-Israeli in the Democratic Party primary nominations in Texas, Ohio, California, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.

The UDP helped defeat several candidates it opposed, including Senator Bernie Sanders' co-director, Nina Turner, in the powerful Democratic district of Ohio.

Turner was ahead in the polls by 30 points, but she lost, and her fault is that she said that the great American support for "Israel" should not be used to perpetuate the occupation of Palestinian land.

However, the American political activist, Summer Lee, known for her positions in support of the Palestinian people and rejecting the violations practiced by the Israeli Occupation, won the primary elections for her party for the congressional seat in Pennsylvania, beating Steve Irwin, who was supported and financially supported by the Israeli lobby.

AIPAC and its counterpart, DMFI, waged war on Summer Lee, spending $2.7 million to attack it in an unsuccessful attempt to knock it out of the competition.

As long as AIPAC left a pile of politicians, it destroyed financially, organizationally, and politically, because of their stances against the practices of the Israeli Occupation against the Palestinians, like Paul Findley (Illinois), Pete McCloskey (California), Jim Moran (Virginia), and dozens like them.

It has also brought to American decision-making centers prominent personalities, such as Senator Mark Rubio (Florida), Senators Tom Cotton (Arkansas), Senator Ted Cruz (Florida), Senator Ben Cardin (Maryland), and Senator Bob Menendez (New Jersey), and dozens of others.

J Street-backed Representative Andy Levin is facing AIPAC-funded attacks against his re-election bid in Michigan's August 2 Democratic primary and in support of his most pro-Israeli rival, Congresswoman Haley Stevens.

 

American Decision Maker

AIPAC, which was established in 1951, is the strongest lobby on Congress and the US government, in addition to being the strongest Zionist organization after Freemasonry.

It aims to achieve American support for the Israeli entity through cooperation between the intelligence services of the two countries and military and economic aid.

AIPAC also aims to pressure American governments to market "Israel" as a vital country in the region and the world.

The Zionist Organization is also working on preparing a new generation of American leaders who support "Tel Aviv," and money is the main nerve to achieve this by winning the affection of politicians, businessmen, media professionals, and public elites.

The effectiveness of this was demonstrated when all the US presidential candidates in 2008 delivered their speeches at the annual conference of AIPAC.

They declared their full support for the Israeli entity and their commitment to protecting it in the hope of winning the votes of Americans supporting "Tel Aviv."

It is noteworthy that the annual conference of AIPAC, in which more than 15,000 people participate each year, is an important platform for American politicians to launch their campaigns or strengthen their electoral positions.

Everyone who ran for the US president during the past 45 years participated in it, except for the current President Joe Biden, who did not participate in the 2020 conference directly, despite his multiple participation in conferences that preceded that.

The organization includes about 100,000 members, most of whom are very wealthy, according to the 2016 census, according to what was reported by the New York Times, which described it as the most influential in US–Israeli relations.

AIPAC had previously admitted that, in November 2016, it paid the right-wing extremist Frank Gaffney, founder and president of the American Center for Security Policy, $60,000, with the aim of promoting policies that warn of extremist Islam, according to what the Washington Post reported at the time.

For decades, AIPAC represented the aspirations of American Jews and its support for Israeli interests, and although its budget is unknown, the American media asserts that it is financially supported by the wealthy Jews who dominate political life in the United States.

It is noteworthy that the Trump era reflected the enormous influence of the most powerful pro-Israeli lobby within the American decision-making circles, limited the financial support provided by Washington to the Palestinian Authority, and targeted the global movement to boycott "Israel," known for its acronym (BDS), and supported countries whose policy is in the service of "Tel Aviv."